Hans Brase has practiced well, as has Zoran Talley. Lindell Wigginton and the rest of the newcomers have had their moments, too.

This much, however, is fair:

The Cyclones need Cameron Lard to play as close to the way former star Jameel McKay played — the sooner the better.

Iowa State hasn’t had a rim-protector since McKay swatted and altered shots during the 2014-16 seasons. The 6-9 225-pounder averaged exactly two blocked shots a game. That’s when he made opponents think twice before entering The Land of McKay.

“He was the best,” coach Steve Prohm recalled during Big 12 Media Day Tuesday at the Sprint Center.

Run from rim to rim. Challenge screens. Hustle. Rebound. Protect the rim.

Sound like anyone you know or have seen?

“If you’re going to compare (Lard) to a style of player that people are familiar with, he’s a McKay-type guy,” Prohm said. “He’s got a motor. He can run the floor. He can protect the basket.

“He’s improving every day,” Nick Weiler-Babb said of Lard. “He was so raw at first. He had (raw potential). He just had to tone it in.”

And now?

“He’s a little like Jameel,” Babb continued. “Jameel was such a great player, and now that Cam’s here, you can see flashes of him in the way he passes and runs the floor, and the plays around the basket.”

He's the unknown piece of a 2017-18 team that coaches picked to finish ninth in the Big 12. He didn’t play last season while concentrating more on academics than basketball.

“It was like he was in the middle of nowhere,” said Weiler-Babb, who knows what it’s like to sit out a season. “He couldn’t travel; he couldn’t do much.

“Even throwing him in in practice — he kind of didn’t know what was going on.”

Iowa State's Solomon Young (33) high fives with Adriana Camber after competing in the three point contest during Hilton Madness at the Hilton Coliseum on Friday, Oct. 13, 2017, in Ames.
Brian Powers/The Register

That’s changed. Eventually, he’ll average around 25-to-30 minutes a game, now that he’s fully acclimated to everything Iowa State.

“He’s athletic,” Prohm said of the player fans haven’t yet seen. “He can rebound. He’s blocking shots. He’s developing a little mid-range shot. He’s going to be key for us.”

He’s going to have to be all that, and more, because Iowa State lost a lot of points with the graduations of Monte Morris, Matt Thomas, Naz Mitrou-Long and Burton.

“You can joke and say double-double, but we need him to dominate the glass and hopefully get a couple blocks,” Prohm said when I asked about statistical projections for his Lard. “He could do that, if he gets his rebounds. He’s got a chance.”

Lard and 6-8, 245-pound Solomon Young will provide the Cyclones a power front court when they’re in games together, which could be often. Prohm said that with that lineup, “you need to try to hurt people on the glass.”

That’s the plan, at least.

Jackson, Wigginton, Talley, Weiler-Babb and Young can handle the scoring. Lard, they hope, can handle the rest — from the dirty-work rebounding to the highlight-reel shot-blocking.

“That’ll be my role,” Lard said while sitting in the stands before a summer-league game last July. “I’ll be that guy.”